I still can't seem to get the emotive to start at the beginning of a script. This is what I did...

I added a 90 second soundtrack to my model...then went to "stage" and clicked into the "new script" area of Character1's line. I then clicked on the Emotives tab and selected one (doesn't matter which). Then, when I click on the Timeline tab and play it, the Emotive only cuts in at the point shown in the screendump.

I'm probably doing something really stupid...but it doesn't matter what photo I use (though I've only ever tried the one soundtrack).

Your screenshot doesn't show but are you adding the "New Script" 40 seconds into your project or right at frame 1. An emotive should begin as soon as the script begins to play, but if your script doesn't start for 40 seconds then the emotive won't start until that time either.

Are you able to show a screenshot of the scripts in the Stage tab so I can see better where the problem may be coming from.